Google is facing many lawsuits over its business practices these days. Currently, the tech giant is facing a new legal charge from Washington, DC Attorney General Karl Racine who announced that his office has filed a lawsuit alleging that Google violated the state’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act, specifically regarding location tracking.
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Karl Racine believes that, despite Google’s claims that users can opt-out of having their whereabouts tracked, such tracking is still in place. Similar AG-led lawsuits in Texas, Washington State, and Indiana support Racine’s claim.
BREAKING: My office is suing Google for deceiving users and invading their privacy.
Google claims that changing your device and account settings protects your data. The truth is, since 2014, Google has systematically surveilled users no matter what settings they choose.
— AG Karl A. Racine (@AGKarlRacine) January 24, 2022
These issues didn’t start today, some of them first came up in 2018, when an Associated Press report revealed that location tracking remained active regardless of the user’s preference.
According to the claim, tracking data was stored in a Web and App Activity database between 2014 and 2019, despite these promises. As we explained in our in-depth look at the subject, Google did allow users to go in and delete their location from this file, but the process was slow and laborious.
We’re leading a bipartisan group of AGs from Texas, Indiana, & Washington, each suing in state court to hold Google accountable.
We’re seeking to stop Google’s illegal use of “dark patterns” & claw back profits made from location data. Read the complaint:https://t.co/KQCPiZSYxA
— AG Karl A. Racine (@AGKarlRacine) January 24, 2022
The complaint states that “Google leads consumers to believe that consumers are in control of whether Google collects and retains information about their location and how that information is used.
“In reality, consumers who use Google products cannot prevent Google from collecting, storing and profiting from their location.” It went on to say that using dark patterns to persuade a user to consent to data collection is harmful to consumers.
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Karl Racine’s filing follows a landmark action in Arizona brought in 2020 by Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who wanted the company to refund ad money to users who thought they had turned off tracking but had not.
Documents from that very case surfaced in 2021, claiming that Google had attempted to further obscure the settings that would allow a user to disable location tracking.
